


Lost Cause

by thatsprettygood



Category: Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Drug Abuse, M/M, just guys being dudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 08:48:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21194915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsprettygood/pseuds/thatsprettygood
Summary: Herbert strikes a deal.





	Lost Cause

Dan Cain came home, tired, exhausted, and spent. A long day of tests and blood behind him, and a long night's rest ahead. That depended on if his roommate was in a good mood. He hoped that his roommate and kinda-sort-of friend, Herbert West, was working quietly in the basement. Herbert was good that way- usually quiet and out of sight. Until, of course, he needed Dan for another one of his experiments. Dan didn’t expect to find him like this.  
“Where is it?” Came a strangled cry. The sound of books clattering to the floor could be heard.  
“Herb?” Dan called. He walked down the hall to his roommate’s room. The door was wide open- books and papers and medical posters battered across the floor. “Where is it,damn you?” Herbert cursed, amidst this tornado of chaos. “Where’s what?” Dan swore under his breath if he found another one of West’s creature features roaming the house, he’d lock up that stupid basement and throw away the key. But no- the fellow med student looked far too frazzled for something so commonplace. His hair stuck out in damp spikes. His hands, clammy and pale in the dim light, shook furiously. “My notebook Dan- it’s gone!” Herbert’s voice wavered like an unsteady heartbeat. “Years of research- years of time and effort! My brilliance has been wasted!”  
“ You haven’t left the house in three days, Herb. It’s in the house somewhere.” Dan felt a shiver crawl up his spine. He hadn’t seen Herbert this panicked in well- ever. The intelligence and the cool rationality that Dan to come to respect in the man was long gone.  
“I’ve checked- several times. It’s not here.” He tossed some more papers around as if for dramatic effect.  
“ I’ve been looking for hours-” Herbert drew himself up for a moment. “Let me check your room. That the only place I haven’t looked.”  
“ Now why would it be in there?”  
“ I’ve looked everywhere else . Logically it would be in the one place I haven’t searched.”  
Dan put a hand on Herbert’s shoulder. The smaller man was shaking like a scared animal. “I think the logical thing is to take a break.”  
The man pulled away. “I don’t need a break- I’m perfectly-perfectly fine.”  
“West-”  
“ I’m on the verge of a breakthrough! You can’t hinder my progress- our progress.”  
“The only thing you’re on the verge of is a nervous breakdown!” Dan barked in experation“ Look at yourself Herbert! I’ve never seen you like this-” He faltered. That was a lie.  
“Let me see your arm.” He said cooly. Herbert scowled. “Why would I-”  
Dan snatched the man’s arm. He shoved the sleeve of Herberts coat past his elbow. Little yellow-red dots lay in a neat line on the man’s bicep. Herbert took his arm back. He looked at Dan, eyes full of shame.  
“You said you weren’t going to do this anymore.” Dan said. A low boiling heat lay in his chest. “I had to-”  
“ You promised me.” Herbert looked at his feet for a moment- hand on his arm. “You said you wouldn’t do it again.”  
Herbert shrugged. “Its safe.” He said nonchalantly, taking his hand back.“It re-animates the dead- Your veins are green for christ’s sake!” Dan grabbed his shoulders. “Stop poisoning yourself and get some rest Herbert. Please.” He begged.  
“You’re being melodramatic.” He spat. “It Keeps the brain in prime condition.It’s not heroin.”  
“When are you getting it into your thick skull? You lied to me. Hell, meth would have been better than this- this nightmare fuel.” That was a lie, obviously, but Dan wished he did the familiar drugs like a normal drug addict would.  
“You don’t understand.” Herbert demanded. “You’re right. How could I? You are the genius after all.” He said-forcing as much bitterness as he could in his voice.  
“...I’d like to be alone.”  
“What a surprise.” Dan scoffed. He stormed to the kitchen. The drawers where open, the pantry completely disheveled. He groaned. He tried not to think of him as he made himself a sandwich. Herbert sacrificed life and limb for his studies. His obsession had become his life- hell- Dan had never known it to be anything less. After the massacre, after Meg, things would be different. Things would get better. Dan sniffed as he assembled the ham, lettuce and cheese onto the slightly stale white bread. He sat down, wiping his nose. He was never was much of a cryer.  
He ate his tasteless meal as he heard footsteps come in. “Daniel.” Herbert said. Just by the sound of his voice he felt more composed. More there. Dan sat in silence. “I know you’re mad at me.”  
“I’m not mad.” Dan said, mouth full of ham. “ I’m disappointed.”  
“Ah. Very similar emotions in this situation, I imagine.”  
“ I thought I could trust you .”  
Herbert scoffed. “ You can always trust me Daniel.don’t be silly.”  
“ You promised to me. And I had faith in you.” Dan said.  
“I didn’t promise you anything.” Herbert said, just as flatly. “ I just said if it bothered you that much- I’d do it less. I never said I would stop.”  
“This isnt less.” He tried to not care. To not try to help. Dan looked up- the first time the entire conversation. Herbert was tiny standing in the doorway. His shirt still bunched past the pale expanse of his forearm looking as distant and smug is ever.  
. “You really care about me, don’t you?” It was almost taunting, the way he said it. How dare you care.  
In hindsight, if he had never met Herbert in the first place- Megan, her Father, and his old life would be whole and safe. There were days were he found himself bitterly wishing Herbert had died just so Meg lived-At least he was lucky enough to have one of the two again. “ You’re all that I have left anymore.”  
“You can’t be serious.”  
“What if I am?” Dan said quietly.“I don’t- Nobody knows me like you do. I don’t talk to anyone anymore.” This was true. Most of his peers stayed well away. The fact that he was even slightly close to Herbert west had something to do with that, of course. Again- the man was like a sick animal you couldn’t face yourself to get rid of.  
The good doctor took his glasses to wipe the sweat off with his sleeve. He was composed for a man shaking like a leaf. “ I see.” Herbert sat down across from him. It was his spot- even if he was never around to sit in it.  
He swallowed dryly. “I...Daniel.” Dan looked up at him. The man looked to be in pain. Sweating, fidgeting in his seat. “It’s very hard for me to even say this but- I don’t think I can do this alone.” He muttered. “I’ll make a deal with you. How about that?” Dan carefully put a hand on the man’ wrist. It was like holding onto a tense piece of deli meat wrapped around a bone. Herbert didn’t shrink away at the contact. “I’m listening.”  
“I go-” Herbert shuddered at the thought. “ I go cold turkey. Starting right now. But you have to help me.”  
“Seriously? Why now?”  
“It obviously upsets you” Herbert shrugged. “It’s...understandable.”  
“How are you being so reasonable about this all of a sudden?”  
“Do we have a deal or not, Dan.” It was more of a statement than a question.  
“Okay. I’ll help you.”  
“Alright.”  
And then they both gave a small,awkward sigh. “Do you need anything?” Dan asked, letting go if the clammy warmth of his hand, moments after realizing he was still holding on.  
“A sandwich?”  
“ Water. And an aspirin.”  
Dan silently obliged. 

“I think I’m going to bed.” Herbert said quietly. He had taken the aspirin and downed two cups of water. Dan was drying his dish. He turned.“Right now?”  
Herbert nodded.  
“Do you think I can stay in your room tonight? You might need me.”  
Herbert was quiet. “Only if you want me to. I’m not trying to-“  
“ I know.” Herbert said. “We could sleep in the living room tonight.” He muttered. “Like a sleepover.” Dan added, smiling.  
They gathered their blankets and things in comfortable silence. Furniture was moved and blankets were spread. “ do you know what this needs?”  
“No?”  
“ A fort.” Dan dived for the pillows and undresses the couch for his project. A notebook lay flat among the crumbs and change. Herbert practically screeches. “My notes!” He cried, opening it and flipping through the pages. Everything’s there. “In the couch? Seriously?” Dan said desperately. “ How the hell did it get under there?”  
“ Ive must have forgotten it while I was reading yesterday. Or when I checked the mail- or oh hell. I’m very tired.”  
Dan laughed. “ Give me a second and I’ll turn off the light. “

“I dub thee, fort Dan. He said, christening it with a small pat. Herbert snorted. “What?” He asked. “Too goofy?” Herbert smirked. “It’s very you.”  
“Too goofy then.” Dan chuckled, getting into it. Herbert settled himself outside the tiny pillow tent. He was still twitching underneath the worn Miskatonic shirt, looking strangely naked without his glasses.  
“ Are you alright?”  
“ Not really.” Herbert said. “ Shakiness, nausea...”  
“Do you need anything?”  
“I’ll manage, Dan.”  
“Okay. I’ll turn off the light.”  
“Please.”  
It felt like a small eternity before Dan could relax properly. He took a few small glances at Herbert. A book in one hand-a flashlight in the other. He looked clammy and pale, but thankfully he always did.  
Dan settled in underneath the blanket. He still felt a little shameful for helping, for always trying to save the unsaveable. Herbert west was always teetering on the deep end-but it would be wrong of him to say the man was a lost cause. A small sense of pride knowing that Herbert asked for his help. That herbert let him get close, and now he was allowed to rest.

“Hey Dan?”  
“ Yeah?” Dan mumbled- wiping the half-dried spittle on his lip. It was dark- but he could see Herbert’s faint outline against the window.  
. “ That thing you said earlier. That I was the only thing you have left- that was true, correct?”  
“Yeah?”  
“ Well. You’re the only person who’s...you’re the only thing I really have either. If that has any value.”  
Dan moved, careful not to disturb anything. “ It does. “  
“Good.” The flashlight clicked off. He brushed up against Dan’s leg as he stiffly cocooned himself in quilts.  
“Goodnight Dan.” 

“Night, Herb.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully I didn't write Herbert too ooc for this! This is my first re-animator fic n it was stupid fun to write.


End file.
